Coming full circle

I always wanted to be a writer. My mother kept some of my essays from elementary school and even then I had, shall we say, a creative imagination. If the teachers' comments meant anything, I also had a knack for writing. My spelling was gawd awful and my grammar wasn't much better, but even when I was nine years old I could tell a story.

In the mid 70s I began writing a country music column for our small hometown newspaper. Back then, Branson was just a blip on the map and Springfield housed some pretty good size country music theaters. I wrote my column without pay, but it got us into a lot of country music shows free.

Thanks to the local DJs, I had the privilege of interviewing a few semi-famous entertainers, Boxcar Willie when he was part of Hee Haw, Carl and Pearl Butler from the Grand Ole Opry, when they were performing at the Shrine Mosque, and many of the Ozark Country Jubilee crew. That was a long time ago. My mother also kept those columns (which I fully appreciate now) and when I read Lee's Country Likin's I cringe at how corny they were. Dal Mason, editor/publisher of our paper, opened the door for me and I will never forget his kindness and mentoring.

In 1976 I sold my first piece to the Springfield News-Leader (a Gannett publication) and I thought I had arrived. Twenty dollars . . . and the story TV and the two year old ran on the inside cover of their weekly TV magazine. One of the paper's artists complimented my story with a great cartoon. I thought I had died and gone to heaven, I was so proud.

Shortly after that I had about a twenty-year case of writer's block and I just shut down completely. Then in the early 90s I began writing PR releases in my job, and I met Laura Scott, editor and owner of Springfield's Today's Woman. Laura and I hit it off right from the start. I did a couple of features for her and then the gal that had been writing a column for TW went to work for the News-Leader and Laura allowed me to fill that slot with a new column Fiftysomething (back then I was fiftysomething). Laura and TW gave me a great outlet for my writing. I joined the Springfield Writer's Guild (past president) and then the Missouri Writers' Guild and through the guilds I was fortunate to receive many awards for my columns.

Several years later Laura sold the magazine to KGBX and stayed on as managing editor. Then Clear Channel Communications bought KGBX. CCC was not in the magazine business, although they kept the mag for a couple of years before letting it go. So, after nine years of writing a monthly column, I was out of a writing job, and back to writing PR for my day job.

In case you are wondering where the coming full circle comes in, here's the kicker.

Dal Mason passed away many years ago and his paper, the oldest in Greene County, saw a couple of owners come and go. In April of this year Laura Scott bought the Commonwealth and the Cross Country Times (a neighboring city's weekly). To say it is a small world would be an understatement, but it didn't take long for Laura and I to connect again, and I am back with a monthly column Leezy's Slice of Life in both papers.

Basically, I am right back where I started over thirty years ago (hopefully not as corny). But, it's nice to be here, and it's great to be doing a column again.

This post was mostly to say thank you to Laura. I'm looking forward to another nine years (or maybe longer), and I hope Laura is too.